Loneliness+and+Comradery+Topic+2

Topic
toc
 * Short Stories **
 * Poetry **

Common Core Standards

 * RL.11-12.1.** Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.


 * RL.11-12.2.** Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.


 * RL.11-12.3.** Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).


 * RL.11-12.4.** Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.


 * RL.11-12.5.** Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.


 * RL.11-12.6.** Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).


 * RL.11-12.9.** Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.


 * RI.11-12.6.** Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.


 * W.11-12.2.** Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.


 * W.11-12.5.** Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.


 * W.11-12.6.** Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.


 * SL.11-12.1.** Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.


 * L.11-12.1.** Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
 * Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested.


 * L.11-12.4.** Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on //grades 11–12 reading and content//, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
 * Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
 * Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., //conceive, conception, conceivable//).
 * Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, its etymology, or its standard usage.
 * Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).


 * L.11-12.5.** Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
 * Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text.
 * Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

Suggested Student Objectives

 * To explore their own concepts and create their own definitions for the terms loneliness and comradery.
 * To examine and analyze definitions/depictions of loneliness and comradery in short stories and poems and to compare and contrast various authors’ depictions/causes/effects/implications/significance of these themes to their own definitions of loneliness and comradery.
 * To explore the themes of loneliness and comradery in depth from many different angles and points of view.
 * To understand the implications of loneliness and comradery for themselves, society, and how these implications are reflected in literature
 * To help students explore and understand the intentions, characterizations and meanings of the texts.
 * To encourage students to analyze and interpret the development of the main characters.
 * To understand dramatic elements such as symbols, flashbacks, figurative language, foreshadowing, and irony and to understand how they are used in the context of the short stories and poems.
 * To enrich students’, vocabulary and to encourage //them// to use vocabulary such as: climax, exposition, melodrama, atmosphere, dialogue, fantasy, setting, tragedy, tone, mood, conflict, irony and theme. Students should understand how the vocabulary is used in each text.
 * To improve writing skills by providing a variety of writing assignments related to the literary texts.
 * To improve literary analysis skills and comprehension by understanding the various causes, effects, and definitions of loneliness and comradery reflected in each text.
 * To provide students with a springboard to create, reevaluate, and revise their own concepts/definitions of loneliness and comradery.

Aside from exploring the themes of loneliness and comradery, the objectives/activities require students to conduct a variety of close readings of the texts which will not only utilize and reinforce analytical skills required for success on the English Regents Exam (such as drawing inferences and analyzing the basic literary elements and techniques of characterization, conflict, plot, setting, theme, irony, suspense, foreshadowing, and symbolism) but they will also begin to develop skills required for the Common Core English Standards, AP English courses and college English courses (such as analyzing diction, syntax, tone, author’s intention/purpose, and dealing with complex/sophisticated texts which function on multiple levels meaning).

Suggested Additional Readings
//The Yellow Wallpaper// by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (pertinent theme: loneliness/isolation -- short story)  //The Sniper// by Liam O'Flaherty (pertinent theme: loneliness/isolation versus comradery -- short story)  Love -- Chapter from Tim O’Brien’s //The Things They Carried// (pertinent theme: comradery -- short story)  Speaking of Courage -- Chapter from Tim O’Brien’s //The Things They Carried// (pertinent theme: loneliness/isolation -- novel excerpt/short story)  //All Summer in a Day// by Ray Bradbury (pertinent theme: loneliness/isolation -- short story)  //I Loved My Friend// by Langston Hughes (pertinent theme: loneliness and comradery/friendship --poem)  //Daffodils// by William Wordsworth (pertinent theme: loneliness -- poem)  //Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening// by Robert Frost (pertinent theme: loneliness/isolation -- poem)  //Acquainted with the Night// by Robert Frost (pertinent theme: loneliness/isolation -- poem)

Resource Links
The link that follows will provide the full text to Tim O’Brien’s //The Things They Carried.// Please only use the chapters //Love// and //Speaking of Courage//, since the full novel is reserved for the AP Language and Composition course.



//I Loved My Friend //by Langston Hughes and a variety of other poems containing the theme of comradery/friendship can be found using this link.

//Daffodils// by William Wordsworth:

Activities
//Note: When planning lessons related to the following activities, please consider that each activity (identified by an asterisk *) requires multiple days to complete.//


 * Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the following activities:

As in the previous (full length text) portion of this unit, before reading any of the texts in this short story/poetry unit, students should discuss their own concepts and create/write their own definitions for the terms loneliness and comradery. They should also be prompted to explore/analyze the causes and effects of loneliness/isolation and comradery/friendship/companionship. As they read and after they finish reading each work of literature, students should articulate each author’s particular definition/perspective relating to the concepts of loneliness/isolation and comradery/friendship. The suggested reading for this unit provide a vast array of perspectives relevant to the themes/concepts of loneliness/comradery; students should be able to explain/infer/analyze how each author’s concepts of these themes have different implications, causes, and effects. Students should be prompted to explain how one author’s perspective of loneliness and comradery differs from another author’s perspective. Students must be able to analyze/explain how the characters relate to and reinforce the author’s particular perspective of these themes. Students should compare their own definitions of these terms/concepts to each author’s perspective. They should then be given another opportunity to revise their own definitions of loneliness and comradery, and (if necessary) incorporate/synthesize aspects of each author’s definitions for these terms/concepts into their revised definition. Finally, students should also be able to explain/articulate not only what brought about these revised personal definitions but also how experiencing these texts has broadened their understanding of these themes.


 * Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain through the following activities:

Students should focus on particular events and characters and explain, through writing and discussion, the significance of these events and characters and their roles in reinforcing the greater themes of the overall work and the themes of loneliness and comradery. They should be able to articulate what is going on in the text on both a literal level and also a deeper (metaphorical/symbolic/thematic) level.


 * Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account through the following activities:

For this activity, students should pay particular attention to the themes of loneliness and comradery, explore how these themes are developed throughout each work, and determine how these themes affect the actions of each short story’s or poem’s protagonist. These activities lend themselves well to writing assignments and/or group or whole class discussions.


 * Another activity that lends itself to the Common Core Standards and to the requirements for the English Regents is choosing one short story and one poem in order to write an essay that establishes how each author uses different techniques and approaches to establishing a similar controlling idea about loneliness and/or comradery. They should use the writing process to draft, edit, and revise in order to produce a final product that is free from errors and which exhibits control over stylistic conventions expected from a college level essay.

Assessments
The teacher will monitor and critique/evaluate class activities while providing assistance and feedback when necessary. Students will be assessed through a variety of evaluative tools/assignments. These include but are not limited to questioning during whole-class or individualized close readings which checks for understanding/comprehension of the texts' complexities an multiple meanings, homework assignments which reinforce skills developed during class activities and instruction, frequent quizzes, tests/exams, and thematic essay assignments which reinforce skills required for the Common Core English Standards, the English Regents Exam, and the above activities. Teachers should feel free to adapt any of the above activities to fit essay assignments or lessons that span multiple days. At the very least, a variation of the rubrics used for the English Regents should be used for evaluation and to provide students with feedback and validations of grades.